Convicts
Nasarawa governor frees 36 prison inmates, donates N250,000 transport fare
The Nasarawa State Government has released 36 inmates in the state’s correctional centre to reduce overcrowding. The inmates, who are prisoners mostly awaiting trials and convicts, were released by State Governor Abdullahi Sule who visited the correctional facility in Lafia on Wednesday. The Lafia Correctional Centre is one of the six prisons in the state, located along Doma Road, Lafia City and is known to be overstretched presently with mostly awaiting trials inmates. Speaking while presiding over the release of the prisoners, Governor Sule said the move was to mark the June 12 Democracy Day. ‘I am glad to be here. By law, it is the responsibility on the part of leaders to forgive when it is time to forgive because God forgives us. When I looked at the faces of these inmates, I discovere...
Somali execute 18 al-Shabab militants
Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera Eighteen al-Shabab militants were executed on Sunday in Galkayo town of Mudug, the Puntland State of Somalia, after being sentenced to death earlier by the court. The Chairperson of Puntland state court, Mohamud Abdi Mohamed, said that the court proceedings followed through different stages before the execution. “Puntland State Court of Armed Forces executed 18 al-Shabab militants this morning. “The convicts were all behind the killings of many of our important people here. “The court took the right action against them,’’ Mohamed said. Al-Shabab militants termed the execution as a massacre of innocent civilians by the Puntland state. The militant group has carried out a series of assassinations and bombings in Galkayo and other parts of the Mudug region. Puntland o...
Malawi outlaws death penalty
Malawi’s highest court on Wednesday outlawed the death penalty and ordered the re-sentencing of all convicts facing execution. Capital punishment has long been mandatory in Malawi for prisoners convicted of murder or treason, and optional for rape. Violent robberies, house break-ins and burglaries could also be punishable by death or life imprisonment. Executions have however not been carried out since Malawi’s first democratically elected president, Bakili Muluzi, opposed the punishment when he took office in 1994. In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, Supreme Court judges hearing an appeal by a murder convict declared the death penalty “unconstitutional”, de facto abolishing the punishment. “The death penalty… is tainted by the unconstitutionality discussed,” the judgement said. Malawi last...
Two men bag three years in jail for drug trafficking
A Federal High Court, sitting in Jos on Thursday, sentenced two men, Masa’udu Ishaku, 28, and Isiaka Garba, 30, to three years imprisonment each for trafficking 868 kilogrammes of Tramadol. Justice Musa Kurya sentenced the defendants after they changed their pleas to guilty for drug trafficking. Kurya held that since the defendants changed their pleas to guilty, and also pleaded for leniency, he would temper Justice with mercy. “You are hereby sentenced to three years imprisonment each, beginning from the day you were remanded in the Correctional Centre. “This sentence is to serve as a deterrent to other young people out there, who might think of engaging in such criminal act,’’ he said. Kurya, who frowned at the increased cases of young people trafficking hard drugs in the country, pledge...
Edo court sentences 32 people for not wearing face masks
A mobile court in Benin, Edo State, on Tuesday sentenced 32 persons to community services for not wearing face masks. Edo State has made it mandatory for residents to wear face masks and obey other COVID-19 protocols in order to check the spread of the viral infection. The prosecuting counsel, Orubosa Okubor, said the 32 persons were apprehended within Benin metropolis and that they pleaded liable. The Chief Magistrate, Rusberth Imafidon, directed the convicts to carry out community services in line with the Correctional Centre of Non-Custodial Regulation. Their punishment includes clearing drains, shrubs, picking of trash, compulsory community sensitisation, and grass-cutting. Mr Imafidon said the offenders would be punished for three hours for one day to serve as a deterrent to other vio...
